The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-05-07
THE MATTER OF MISSIONS TO THE
HEATHEN.
By Rev. L. j. DINsMoRE.
columbus, Wi }

1 have read with much interest, and
yet with feeling of sadness, the arti-
cles that have appeared from time to
time in our UNCONVENTIONAL press re-
garding the matter of sending Univers-
alist preachers to the heather coun-
tries of the world. do not know as 1
should say anything. Let the harmony
Of the scene be unbroken by any dis
cordant voice. But sense of duty
forbids silence.
In the first place, 1 want to say that
it is no thought of mine to enter into
controversy with any one on this point.
If any brother in the gospel ministry
feels it to be his duty to turn away
from the rich and promising fields of
our own land, fields too often but poorly
titled, and go away to some alien and
decaying race, I can admire his devo-
tion to duty, but must deplore his lack
Of judgment. What if some one goes
away to some remote corner of the
world, to the Society Islands perhaps,
and does succeed in planting church
there. Let his work be crowned with
entire success, and what has he accom-
plished?
That he has done something val
liable, is beyond all question. Savages
have been reclaimed, and some wild
and desolate souls have been made bet
ter and truer children of the heavenly
Father. That is much. But where has
he done his work, and what may be ex-
pected to grow out of it
1t is in some remote corner of the
earth, far from the lines of life and
growth, that people may take the
gospel and be vastly better for it. But
the tides of the worlds life has long
since departed from their hearts and
souls. They are decaying people.
Each year as it passes, marks their les
sening value in the scale of the impor-
tance of the nations. 1t is fact, that
the uncivilized races are being slowly
but surely obliterated by the more
highly civilized. The time is not far
away when many Of the inferior races
of the earth will cease to be. Many
have been swept away in the last two
centuries. Many more will be.
They are not in the currents of the
worlds progress. They do not deter
mine its future, because they, them
selves, have no future, And With some
their present is almost ended. Now, it
is noble thing to christianize and hu-
mamie these perishing races. That is
clear, and honor the self sacrifice and
devotion of those Christian teachers
who go to them with the everlasting
gospel.
But is it any nobler to seek the heather
in Japan than to seek the heathen in
Providence or Chicago? Is foreign
missionary any fner grained and of
more delicate texture than home mis-
sionary And is it any nobler to teach
men in Pekin to love God and follow
Christ than it is to do the same thing
in Rhode Island or Wisconsin ? And
then it is very important thing to
do our work 10 that field that will
give the largest results,-not only for
to-day, but for all time.
If in one place the work is limited,
and lines are drawn beyond which it
cannot hope to pass and in another
place there is no limit set, but the SIM
plest word can widen out until it takes
in the whole round earth, then it is the
part of simple business prudence and
common sense to take that larger and
better opening. think that the Uni
ted States might fairly be taken for
that larger and better field.
Do those who talk of foreign mis-
sions, (meaning heather missions, un
derstand the true place and real signif-
icance of our country in the history of
the world2 Our nation is at the focus
of the history of man. All that is past
seems but preparation for that mar
velous work which this country is doing
for the progress of the world.
1t is not only that marvellous resour-
ces and sublime principles are put into
her hand, but that she is the leading
branch, the principal member of the
great Anglo Saxon family that is very
soon to rule the earth. That has al
ready one-ffteenth of the population
of the world, and rules one-third of its
surface. Its rate of increase is alto
gether beyond parallel in human his
tory. In the year 100 it was estimated
not to exceed six million souls. In the
year 1900 it had risen to above twenty
millions, and is to-day able to exhibit
more than one hundred millions. No
other race is able to show anything like
this, and if the rate of increase that has
prevailed during the past two centuries
be long maintained, the time is not far
distant when the Anglo Saxon will not
only hold the greater part of the sur
face of the earth, but he will be the
greater part of its population. In his
hand is the future of the human race.
The fairest and the most habitable por-